Standing up to Government Attacks on the First Amendment

Mar 25, 2014

On Tuesday, Tea Party Patriots, along with other First Amendment supporters, were out in full force on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. We were there – in the cold, wet snow –because that is how important we believe our First Amendment rights are. When constitutional rights are under attack by our own government, you better believe Tea Party Patriots will be there to advocate for liberty.

We were joined by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rep. Louis Gohmert from Texas, Live Action’s Lila Rose, Concerned Women of America’s Penny Nancy, and others. Once again, we proved we are a force to be reckoned with.

While we view the government’s decision to force business owners to violate their religious principles by way of an Obamacare mandate as incomprehensible, this is also an issue about whether for-profit corporations have the same protection that non-profits do under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. As Joshua Hawley, associate professor of law at the University of Missouri and a counsel to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty explained, the government’s decision that it’s more convenient to mandate health care coverage it deems acceptable through an employer is “not enough reason to force employers to violate their consciences.” [1]

Moreover, in his oral arguments, Paul Clement, who is representing Hobby Lobby, pointed out that these corporations aren’t even asking for an exemption from a law – only from a regulation issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The bottom line is that Kathleen Sebelius and the rest of the federal government should not be in the business of deciding if and when it’s acceptable to force employers to violate their religious beliefs.

The Affordable Care Act is undoubtedly the single piece of legislation most responsible for shredding our Constitution. We at Tea Party Patriots know a thing or two about assaults on the Constitution and the First Amendment. Today in front of the Supreme Court, we fought back against Obamacare and the administration’s attacks on freedom of religion. We were there today, and we’ll be there again.